Scottish Gymnastics Scholarship - MScR in Sport, Exercise, and Health Science

The Scottish Gymnastics Scholarship for MScR Sport, Exercise and Health Science is designed to attract the most talented and deserving candidates who want to use research to raise awareness of the distinct challenges faced by women in gymnastics. This competitive scholarship will recognise one student who combines academic excellence, a passion for research and financial need in pursuit of their career goals. The award will fully fund the tuition fees for one UK fee status student coming to study on the MScR programme that wants to undertake the project detailed below.

Project Details

Title: Breast Health in Female Scottish Gymnasts

Breast discomfort, movement, and self-consciousness are increasingly recognised as barriers to sports participation for girls and women. Gymnastics poses particular challenges because of multidirectional movement, inversion, high-impact landings, sprint approaches, tumbling, and aesthetic uniform pressures. There is very little gymnastics-specific evidence on breast support needs, sports bra suitability, discipline-specific movement demands, or clothing policy implications. Breast pain has also been reported to affect performance of elite female athletes.

The primary aim is to evaluate the breast health of Scottish gymnasts across different disciplines. The secondary aim is to assess breast movement magnitude and patterns in Scottish gymnasts across different levels and disciplines.